Microcontroller architectures sometimes include peripheral modules for pre-processing and/or post-processing of data before the standard data processing. For example, a microcontroller may include an encryption/decryption peripheral module for processing encrypted frame data before the data is processed by a master display controller that handles decrypted data. Unless the master and peripheral modules are coupled together, the additional processing by the peripheral modules may introduce latency and reduce the overall bandwidth of the processing. It may be useful to configure a microcontroller architecture for additional links for direct data transfer between master and peripheral modules. Such a microcontroller architecture may allow resource sharing between modules and also may cause microcontroller size optimization.